Phidippus whitmani is a species of jumping spider

Jumping spider

The jumping spider family contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among invertebrates and use it in courtship, hunting and navigation...

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Description

While the male is strikingly red on top, with a black band in the frontal eye region and sometimes with white setae on the forelegs, the female is of a rather inconspicuous brown color. It is one of the species of jumping spiders which are mimics of mutillid wasps

Mutillidae

Mutillidae are a family of more than 3,000 species of wasp whose wingless females resemble ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their dense pile of hair which most often is bright scarlet or orange but may also be black, white, silver, or gold. Their bright colours serve as aposematic signals...

(commonly known as "velvet ants"); several species of these wasps are similar in size and coloration, and possess a very painful sting.http://www.arachnology.org/ISA/meetings/1998ISAabs.htm

External links

• Photographs of P. whitmani
• More photographs of P. whitman and other Phidippus species
• Diagnostic drawings
• BugGuide: Phidippus whitmani